Peer1 - Moving at Broadband Speed
By Staff Writer
Peer1
is buzzing with activity and HostIndex.com has the latest on the growing web
host. To call Peer1 a mere web host would be a disservice to the array of
offerings that the company has assembled. For starters, they offer both shared
and dedicated hosting. That by itself doesn't distinguish Peer1 since many web
hosts offer such services. But the company has also met other business needs
through colocation and content delivery networks. However, once again, that's
not why HostIndex.com is taking notice of the company. They first caught our
eye about a year ago and since then, Peer1 management has taken the company on
an acquisition binge that has bulked it up and grown their customer base by
thousands of clients. Our users inform us of minimal customer service issues
often associated with merger integration, which means Peer1 is likely set to
surpass expectations once the typical integration phases are complete.
Peer1 originated as a Canadian-based Internet services
company. However, in October 2004, they made a large purchase in the United
States that brought significant industry media attention to them. ServerBeach,
a company started by a co-founder of Rackspace Managed Hosting, delivers
discount-dedicated servers to webmasters and technology aficionados. Peer1 paid
$7.5 million for the server company; which at that time housed some 4,200
dedicated server customers. Since then, ServerBeach has grown considerably -
including many HostIndex.com users that have chosen the provider.
In 2005, Peer1 has pulled off the 'hosting-coup' of the year
by snapping up the Dedicated Hosting division of Internet-service giant Interland. The $14 million transaction
scored another 8,200 dedicated servers for the company. The combination of
these dedicated servers with the expanding number of ServerBeach clients has
taken Peer1 from a fringe player in the dedicated hosting space to a major
trendsetter - all inside of a year.
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To help the company manage all this growth, Peer1 has
undergone considerable financing. This means that the company is capable of
integrating their acquisitions and likely considering more opportunities should
the market present them. In fact, their major capital source, Celerity Partners, recently had its
co-founder Mark Benham join the Peer1 board. Along with the status as a publicly traded company Peer1
appears well funded to continue operations.
In addition to acquiring operations, Peer1 has been activate
in building more data centers on their own. During 2005, Peer1 opened new data
centers in California (October) and Virginia (March). They also expanded
existing IDC's in Toronto and New York. To help fill that space, Peer1 now
offers specialized solutions for a number of areas including VoIP, government
solutions, and the gaming industry.
So to those of have not heard of Peer1, there is no good
excuse. Not only might the company soon open a data center near you - Peer1
also has highly regarded hosting offers for small businesses and large
businesses alike. There are certainly customer integration issues and potential
technology snafus associated with new data centers that Peer1 will need to
mitigate. However, assuming they are successful with these initiatives during
2006, the company may well emerge as one of the largest non-telco providers of
dedicated hosting in North America.
